Dr. Mike Oluniyi.
All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes;
but the Lord weigheth the spirits.(Pro.16:2)
One day, our last born who always liked being with me begged that I should allow her to follow me on a two-day retreat. She was just about ten then. I agreed on one condition, which was that she would keep to herself, either studying her bible, praying or reading her books and it became a deal. I told her again that the condition would be kept even during our thirty minutes drive to the resort and she agreed. The retreat centre was located in a rural area about thirty minutes drive from the city and the centre seldom enjoyed stable electricity supply.
My daughter watched me as I put a plastic container inside the car for the fuel that would be needed to power the generator. As we were about to leave the city, she said, “excuse me dad,” I responded that we had a deal and she kept quiet. About ten minutes later as we approached the last filling station before leaving the main road, she tried to gain my attention again, I reminded her of our deal and she said, “but..,” I did not allow her to finish the sentence and she kept quiet. When we reached the last rural filling station again as the place was about to close she unsuccessfully tried to call my attention again but I did not allow her. Just before I turned off the road into the resort, I realized that I did not buy the fuel that we would need to power the generator for the night. I asked myself, how on earth did I forget to buy fuel and my daughter responded, “but that was what I was trying to remind you of all along dad!” I had to apologize to her and lifted the embargo on keeping mute and spent the night without electricity, my phone and IPad battery all dead. You can imagine what such retreat would look like for someone who relied heavily on iPad for virtually everything. That day I regretted not listening to a ten-year old girl!
There are a lot of times when you may take some vital decisions and have the feeling that you are right despite complaints from your spouse, whereas you are wrong. As human beings and especially as a child of God, there is that tendency for you to have the feeling that the counsel of your spouse or even your children does not matter; you may look at yourself as being always correct. The scripture above is telling us that you only seem to be right in your own eyes, you may need the Holy Spirit to actually know if you are right. The Holy Spirit can use your spouse or your child even as young as a ten-year old to point your attention to the needful.
Consequently, when you are about to take an important decision and your spouse is pointing your attention to the inappropriateness of the decision or part of it, pause and prayerfully look at the decision again. Many families have found themselves is serious problems or embarrassing situations because someone felt that his decisions could not be queried. Don’t be too sure that your decision is the right one unless the Holy Spirit has confirmed to you.
